


one step forward

by Riverdaughter



Series: Dick and Dami Week 2021 [5]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Assassin Damian Wayne, Damian Wayne is Robin, Damian expects scheming, Dick Grayson Tries to Be a Good Older Sibling, Dick Grayson is Batman, Dick Grayson is Damian Wayne's Parent, Dick Grayson is a Ray of Sunshine, Gen, and he is, dickanddamiweek2021, he gets watercolors instead, he's still getting over it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:14:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29986164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riverdaughter/pseuds/Riverdaughter
Summary: and two steps back...Sometimes Dick, older, less naïve, more careworn thinks about the story, wonders if he has become Sisyphus, he has after all cheated death on more than one occasion like the wily old king of Corinth. He feels guilty even thinking about the similarities to his relationship with Damian, because he does love the boy.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne
Series: Dick and Dami Week 2021 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2199723
Comments: 4
Kudos: 76
Collections: DickAndDamiWeek2021





	one step forward

**Author's Note:**

> Dick and Dami Week 2021
> 
> Day 5: Dami Calls Dick “Baba” / First “I love you” / ~~“You’re not my father!” “I am well aware.”~~

When Dick was little, and Bruce was still reluctant to let his small partner out too late at night Robin would find himself caught between waking and dreaming waiting for Batman to come home. Dick had not been the voracious reader that Jason had been, later, he was after all born into a grand tradition of oral and visual storytelling. But he was not a reluctant reader either, he enjoyed words, always had and always will, and verbal tics and rhythms and puns, those he loved.

He hadn’t been quite so busy back then; the world had felt wider and more innocent and the trust between Robin and Batman had yet to be strained, he had more time to wander the Manor, looking through the lovely gold embossed editions that Martha had collected. There were several collections of Greek myths and Dick had found the story of Sisyphus- the man caught eternally repeating and never finishing the same task.

And sometimes Dick, older, less naïve, more careworn thinks about the story, wonders if he has become Sisyphus, he has after all cheated death on more than one occasion like the wily old king of Corinth. He feels guilty even thinking about the similarities to his relationship with Damian, because he does love the boy.

Damian has grown on him and it surprises even him sometimes how much he cares for the lonely, prickly child, because loving Damian is not easy. It’s a constant struggle to shrug off every pointed barb, to brush off every callous remark, to ignore the stinging arrogance with which he denigrates Dick’s every accomplishment, his performance as Batman, his own person. 

And sometimes he wonders if it is worth it, feeling guilty almost instantly for weighing his other relationships, Tim, the Titans, his friends against a traumatized boy. But it’s hard enough keeping up his old friendships with the weight of Batman in the balance never mind throwing in Damian’s ability to needle everyone from Superman down.

But slowly and surely Damian, despite his prickliness, the barbs he sheds like some sort of human porcupine is excavating a place in Dick’s heart. Almost as though Dick has discovered some facet of love that he didn’t know he could feel and wonders sometimes if this is what Bruce felt when Dick was very young, when he first adopted Jason, if this is the love of a father for his son.

And Damian is not his, not really but Dick can’t but think “what if?”

He has papers drawn up, should Damian ever express in interest in anything beyond a guardianship or should it ever become a legal necessity. And he knows that Damian doesn’t love him back, doesn’t think of him as a father, but as some sort of perpetually incompetent babysitter and it doesn’t matter.

Because in the end it is not about Dick or his feelings, it is about Damian and giving him a home. 

* * *

Damian isn’t sure what he expects out of Batman’s flock of birds. He doesn’t dislike Tim exactly, at least not personally. He is simply a steppingstone, a challenge to be overcome. But Tim is more resilient than expected and Damian finds it becoming personal, because he can’t seem to beat out the competition. Even Robin feels like a pyrrhic victory.

He gives little thought to Todd until he is laying there, shot in the chest by him. And he supposes that he should have expected that the infamous robins would be competent even if appearances suggest otherwise. Why else would father keep them around?

He finds Brown, nonsensical and useless until suddenly she isn’t. And how dare she treat him like a…friend.

Which leaves Richard, the first robin, the one that all the others aspire to be, however much they may deny it. Richard, who at first glance is a dangerously trusting, weak, pathetically grieving, pretty heir to a legacy he doesn’t deserve. A legacy that is Damian’s by right of blood.

Richard is not what he seems Damian finds.

He does trust readily, but not unwisely and he is a far more dangerous fighter than Damian gave him credit for. He fights Ra’s and wins, he beats Damian in sparing with an ease that Damian takes as a personal affront, he grieves and then takes up the mantle of his dead predecessor. Pretty is a word Damian hears used for him, as both a compliment and an insult but while it’s true it’s not quite accurate.

Richard is beautiful, in mind and movement and in feature. And heir to a legacy that has nothing to do with the Waynes. He is an artist in his own way and Damian finds himself warming to the idea of a guardian who creates beauty as Damian secretly tries to. It doesn’t matter that Richard’s chosen media is the air as Damian is charcoal and paper, the intent matters.

Which is where Damian finds himself most ill prepared for a power struggle with the older boy. Richard wields weapons Damian doesn’t understand; attack him with a sword or dagger and Damian is in his element.

Attack him with things like;

“Hey Dami, Alfred made your favorite breakfast!”

or

“Saw these watercolors in a shop on Reuel St, thought you might like to give them a shot.”

And Damian isn’t sure how to counter, because Reuel St is full of art places and the watercolors are rich and pure (not poisoned, he ran toxicology on them) and what kind of test is this?

Is he attempting to prove that Damian is wasting time with his scribbles? Is it a ploy to lull him into false security? A scheme so Machiavellian that even Damian can’t untangle it?

He knows Richard is clever, a detective by training as well as by aptitude so he adopts his own stratagems, he is unkind, hard to work with, thankless and argumentative.

He shouts insults that no one in the League would have tolerated for a moment, he wards off all attempts at comradeship (well almost all, he lets his guard slip a few times, but nothing happens), and none of it registers.

It doesn’t make sense. 

“You’re not my father,” he yells one night after a disastrous patrol, they are both injured, and Richard’s guard is down (probably).

“I’m well aware.” Richard says sadly, like Damian has hurt him. And Damian for the first time, considers that maybe there is no scheme, no subtle game of wills and he has been playing on entirely the wrong plane all this time. That maybe, just maybe Dick has actually been kind to Damian, that all the little gifts are overtures of friendship, that no matter how cruel Damian is he sees himself as some sort of father to Damian.

Damian finds that he doesn’t disapprove of this.

**Author's Note:**

> So, something from the very beginning. I've been writing a lot about these two after they are sure were they stand with each other and this seemed a fun point to reverse expectations and play with them when they are still finding their footing. 
> 
> Also I just love the idea of them both being artists in their own ways.


End file.
